History of Science

February 25, 2022December 9, 2024History of Science, Random Thoughts

My Top 12 Marconi Award Winners

While reading an article on social media I came to know that Siavash M. Alamouti has been awarded the Marconi Award for the year 2022. It came as no surprise as his work on MIMO technology has been ground breaking and has influenced the work of thousands of researchers. If there is a moot point it is that this award must have been given earlier. Just look up his 1998 paper on Google Scholar and you will find that the number of citations has reached a staggering figure of 18,756. On a personal front, I must admit that when I started my research on MIMO I was having difficulty grasping the concepts and it was Alamouti’s paper that set my direction of research.

January 14, 2018October 13, 2019Fundamentals, History of Science

Ibn al-Haytham to Maxwell: A Long Road

The journey that started with Ibn al-Haytham experimenting with his Camera Obscura in the eleventh century was completed eight hundred years later by James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz. While Maxwell laid down the mathematical framework that described the behavior of Electromagnetic waves, Hertz conclusively proved the existing of these invisible waves through his experiments.

January 6, 2018October 13, 2019Fundamentals, History of Science, Random Thoughts

Omar Khayyam’s Solution to Cubic Equations

Omar Khayyam was a Muslim mathematician and poet of the 11th and 12th centuries (1048-1131). His poetic works known as Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam were translated from Persian to English and made popular by Edward Fitzgerald in the late nineteenth century.

December 31, 2017October 13, 2019Fundamentals, History of Science, Random Thoughts

On the Origins of Snell’s Law (Ibn Sahl’s Law)

Most of Physics courses present Snell’s law of refraction in one form or another. But a little known mathematician with the name Ibn Sahl (c. 940–1000) found this law about 650 years before Snell (Willebrord Snellius c. 1580–1626). This mathematical expression was lost for centuries until some scholars recently were able to dig it up from historical records.

December 26, 2017October 13, 2019Fundamentals, History of Science, Random Thoughts, Solar Energy

Ibn al-Haytham – The Father of Optics

Ibn al-Haytham in his book referred to as the Book of Optics (Kitāb al-Manāẓir) postulated that light travels in form of rays in straight lines and these rays are reflected by objects which makes these objects visible when the rays enter the human eye.

December 16, 2017October 13, 2019Fundamentals, History of Science, Random Thoughts

Al Khwarizmi’s Method of Solving Equations in One Variable

Al Khwarizmi was a Muslim scholar who worked under the patronage of emperor Al Mamun in the 9th century in Baghdad. It was here that Greek philosophical and scientific works were translated into Arabic and it was also here that Al Khwarizmi wrote Hisab al-jabr w’al-muqabala (or algebra).

December 10, 2017October 13, 2019Fundamentals, History of Science, Random Thoughts

Al Beruni’s Method for Calculation of Radius of Earth

Al Beruni is most well known for his experiment to calculate the radius of the earth at a location close to Katas Raj in Kallar Kahar region of Pakistan